Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars
(1912–13) Two military conflicts that deprived the Ottoman Empire of almost all its remaining territory in Europe.

In the First Balkan War, the Balkan League defeated the Ottoman Empire, which, under the terms of the peace treaty (1913), lost Macedonia and Albania. The Second Balkan War broke out after Serbia, Greece, and Romania quarreled with Bulgaria over the division of their joint conquests in Macedonia. Bulgaria was defeated, and Greece and Serbia divided up most of Macedonia between themselves. The wars heightened tensions in the Balkans and helped spark World War I.

* * *

▪ European history
      (1912–13), two successive military conflicts that deprived the Ottoman Empire of almost all its remaining territory in Europe.

      The First Balkan War was fought between the members of the Balkan League—Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro—and the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan League was formed under Russian auspices in the spring of 1912 to take Macedonia away from Turkey, which was already involved in a war with Italy. The league was able to field a combined force of 750,000 men. Montenegro opened hostilities by declaring war on Turkey on Oct. 8, 1912, and the other members of the league followed suit 10 days later.

      The Balkan allies were soon victorious. In Thrace, the Bulgarians defeated the main Ottoman forces, advancing to the outskirts of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and laying siege to Adrianople (Edirne). In Macedonia, the Serbian army achieved a great victory at Kumanovo that enabled it to capture Bitola and to join forces with the Montenegrins and enter Skopje. The Greeks, meanwhile, occupied Salonika (Thessaloníki) and advanced on Ioánnina. In Albania, the Montenegrins besieged Shkodër, and the Serbs entered Durrës.

      The Turkish collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on Dec. 3, 1912. A peace conference was begun in London, but after a coup d'état by the Young Turks in Constantinople in January 1913, war with the Ottomans was resumed. Again the allies were victorious: Ioánnina fell to the Greeks and Adrianople to the Bulgarians. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania. Albanian independence was insisted upon by the European powers, and Macedonia was to be divided among the Balkan allies.

      The Second Balkan War began when Serbia, Greece, and Romania quarreled with Bulgaria over the division of their joint conquests in Macedonia. On June 1, 1913, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance against Bulgaria, and the war began on the night of June 29/30, 1913, when King Ferdinand of Bulgaria ordered his troops to attack Serbian and Greek forces in Macedonia. The Bulgarians were defeated, however, and a peace treaty was signed between the combatants on Aug. 10, 1913. Under the terms of the treaty, Greece and Serbia divided up most of Macedonia between themselves, leaving Bulgaria with only a small part of the region.

      As a result of the Balkan Wars, Greece gained southern Macedonia as well as the island of Crete. Serbia gained the Kosovo region and extended into northern and central Macedonia. Albania was made an independent state under a German prince. The political consequences of the wars were considerable. Bulgaria, frustrated in Macedonia, looked to Austria for support, while Serbia, which had been forced by Austria to give up its Albanian conquests, regarded Vienna with greater hostility than ever. The heightened tensions in the Balkans reached their climax in World War I, which was sparked by the assassination of the Austrian heir-apparent by a Serb in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Balkan Wars — Infobox Military Conflict conflict=Balkan Wars caption=Boundaries on the Balkans after the First and the Second Balkan War place=Balkan Peninsula date=October 8 1912 July 18 1913 result=Treaty of London, Treaty of Bucharest… …   Wikipedia

  • Balkan Wars — (1912–1913)    Two wars fought principally over control of the Ottoman provinces in Macedonia and Thrace. The first, from October 1912 to May 1913, brought the states of the Balkan League, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro, together into a …   Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914

  • Balkan Wars — noun two wars (1912 1913) that were fought over the last of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire and that left the area around Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the only Ottoman territory in Europe • Regions: ↑Greece, ↑Hellenic Republic …   Useful english dictionary

  • Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars — Albanian prisoners are marched through Belgrade 1912. A series of massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars were committed by the Serbian and Montenegrin Army and paramilitaries, according to international reports.[1] During the First Balkan War… …   Wikipedia

  • Albania during the Balkan Wars — History of Albania Prehistory …   Wikipedia

  • Ottoman fleet organisation during the Balkan Wars — This list includes fleet organisations of the Ottoman Navy during the Balkan Wars. Contents 1 Dispositions on October 10, 1912 2 Fleet organisation on October 16, 1912 3 Fleet organisation on December 19, 1912 …   Wikipedia

  • Historical Museum of the Balkan Wars — is a museum in Thessaloniki, Greece …   Wikipedia

  • Balkan League — The Balkan League was the alliance of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. Its founder was by large the Serbian Prime Minister Milovan Milovanović.After the outbreak of the Italo Turkish War… …   Wikipedia

  • Balkan League — (1912)    An alliance of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War. Eleutherios Venizelos, the prime minister of Greece, had pushed for an alliance with Bulgaria early in 1911 to protect… …   Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914

  • Balkan-Krieg — Als Balkankriege werden zwei Kriege der Staaten der Balkanhalbinsel in den Jahren 1912 und 1913 im Vorfeld des Ersten Weltkriegs bezeichnet. Gelegentlich werden auch der Jugoslawienkrieg oder der Kosovokrieg als Balkankrieg bezeichnet.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”